What are the responsibilities and job description for the Mainframe MQ Administrator position at Odyssey Information Services?
The Mainframe MQ/IIB Systems Engineer is responsible for the design, implementation, administration, and support of IBM MQ and IBM Integration Bus (IIB) in a z/OS environment. This role ensures reliable messaging integration across multiple enterprise applications and platforms while contributing to system upgrades, maintenance, and performance optimization.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, configure, and support IBM MQ and IIB environments, including integration and implementation activities.
- Perform MQ and IIB systems programming on z/OS, including installation, maintenance, patching, and version upgrades.
- Provide MQ administration support to multiple application teams.
- Manage Queue Managers, queues, channels, clusters, and Queue Sharing Groups to support high availability, load balancing, and failover.
- Plan, test, and execute MQ version upgrades and ongoing maintenance.
- Deliver technical expertise throughout the software lifecycle—design through deployment.
- Collaborate closely with infrastructure, application, and security teams.
- Apply knowledge of cloud, virtualization, APIs, and modern integration practices.
- Develop or script using one or more languages such as Python, Java, Go, JCL, REXX, PERL, PHP, JYTHON, J2EE, JDBC, Servlets, Ansible, etc.
- Utilize Agile / Lean methodologies in day-to-day work.
- (Preferred) Tune MQ performance using SMF or similar reporting tools.
Required Skills & Experience
- In-depth experience with IBM MQ and IBM Integration Bus (IIB) architecture, configuration, and operations.
- Hands-on systems programming experience in zSeries / z/OS.
- Working knowledge of RACF or ACF2 security models.
- Familiarity with SYSPLEX architecture and high-availability concepts.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with clear, effective communication.
- Proven ability to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment.